Ichigo sits calmly in his lieutenant's quarters, tying the wraps of his shihakusho to a comfortable fit. Today they make their move on Hueco Mundo, all that's left now is to get to Grimmjow and escape into the forests near the Rukon in order to open the garganta. Seeing as none of the vizards know how to open the portal to Hueco Mundo, the former espada turned prisoner of war is their ticket. Renji had requested that they get close to Aizen's palace, just not close enough to end up springing the alarm and subsequent trap that would follow. Ichigo has spent the last seven consecutive days firing arrow after arrow through his mother's sanrei glove, training the Quincy blood he inherited from his mother. While he is nowhere near capable of firing as many arrows as Uryu can, the arrows he can fire are devastating and deadly. A single arrow was capable of vaporizing part of a building made from a material meant to absorb reiatsu. In the time between her kidnapping and now, the last of the hollowfication experiments completed with several members of the captains and lieutenants now having hollow powers. Finishing his preparations, Ichigo feels the spiritual pressure of Renji arrive at his barracks here to collect the youngest shinigami to ever be in the gotei 13.
"You ready to go?" Renji asks as he walks into Ichigo's room, not bothering to knock since he was already expected to arrive. "We have a time limit for the invasion, so we rescue Rukia, take out as many arrancar as we can and get back to the human world."
"Yeah, I got everything I need." Ichigo responds, "Is everything set for the distraction?" He asks, standing up from his cot then downing the rest of his coffee.
"Yep, just gotta give Kisuke the signal and he'll do the rest." Renji responds, giving Ichigo a thumbs up. "Also I got some traveling clothes for the desert as well, Kisuke says they're designed to conceal reiatsu which will buy us as much time as possible."
"Good, then let's get going. Are Byakuya, Chad, Orihime and Uryu ready?" The orange haired soul reaper acts, motioning for Renji to exit the room then following the red haired man out.
"Everything's set. Captain Kuchiki has everyone over by the main gate so we can get to west Rukon just at sunrise. Just gotta click this button, send Kisuke the message and he'll start with the distraction." Renji explains as the two begin their walk towards the gate on the far side of the seireitei. The button in question is a small rectangular device with a red light button on the side of it.
"Let's get this party started. Today is going to be a long day." Ichigo responds, prompting Renji to grin before pressing said button. Almost immediately a massive explosion rocks the entire seireitei almost causing the two lieutenants to nearly stumble from a pseudo earthquake created by the explosion. "Damnit Kisuke! We needed a distraction not huge explosion!" Ichigo shouts over the sudden sirens and plume of fire rising up from the R and D department.
"Who cares, let's just go, we need to move!" Renji says, grabbing Ichigo by the wrist then flash stepping the two to the rendezvous point with the other members of their little rescue team. "Let's just hope that Kisuke foots the bill for that." The red haired man says between flash steps, the bursts of reiatsu that he releases when using the technique masked by the dozen other or so shinigami doing the same to head towards the fire currently engulfing the twelfth squad labs.
Far enough away from the entertainment, Renji and Ichigo appear just past the opening of the main gates normally guarded by the giant Jidanbo. Taking the brief moment between movements to finish getting prepared for their journey to the hollow desert, Renji dumps out a knapsack containing their desert clothes that will be needed. Inside the bag are two large burlap panchos with cloaks and turbans made with a special material to conceal their reiatsu as much as possible. Renji throws the coverings over his shoulders and ties them from the inside before pulling the hood of the cloak over his head. Ichigo's new clothing fits rather well over his head, covering most of his body except for a small opening in the middle of his body, his sword is able to be completely concealed underneath the poncho. Once the two men have finished dressing in the clothes needed for the desert, they give each other a curt nod before flash stepping away from the seireitei and dozens of miles away from the capital of soul society.
"Be prepared, with the equipment that Urahara Kisuke has given us, you won't be able to sense any of us until you get rid of it. Renji and Ichigo will get here any minute no-" Byakuya says before the two in question appear from the use of a flash step. "Guess that fixes that, is everyone ready?"
"I have everything I need, as well as some food depending on how long we're gonna be stuck there." Orihime says in her typical ditsy tone.
"I have made my preparations, and I have everything I need as well." Uryu answers and Chad just gives a thumbs up.
"Alright, let's get this party started, nothing starts off a Sunday morning like criminal trespassing, vandalism and murder! Oh it sounds like fun already!" Grimmjow exclaims before scraping his hand across the air just in front of him, the action causes a black void to unzip from the Arrancar's touch creating a small garganta for them to use. "Let's go kick some ass!" He shouts before sprinting into the black portal.
"By tonight, Rukia will be in your arms, Aizen will be dead, and the war will be over before it gets started." Renji says nudging Ichigo on the shoulder then walking into the void following the arrancar. Ichigo gives Byakuya a nod before following Renji into the void.
The precipice world between the realms is unlike anything Ichigo and his friends had ever seen, Byakuya and Renji had seen it a few times but never entered it. In front of them stands an infinite expanse of blackness, with no sound, temperature or spiritual pressure aside from their own. The black void expands outwards in all directions infinitely, like the void of space but here there are no stars. Beneath their feet is a floor made of aquamarine blue spirit energy taking the shape of a jungle floor with plants, small shrubs and stones along the path. Looking up they see Grimmjow looking back at them with the path emanating seemingly from his feet. "Here, you have to make your own path to walk on, normally espada are strong enough to make the distance between the garganta gates almost nothing, but since I have you all with me we have to take the long way. Keep quiet and don't distract me, it's not exactly easy making a path sturdy enough for all of us." He explains before turning and beginning to run down the path at a brisk pace. The others don't put up an argument to this and follow him through the precipice world.
As the group are running along the darkness, Ichigo is distracted by his own thoughts. His hollow and the old man, being the bulk of this distraction as the three try to come up with more to the plan that can't be summed up by a short list of felonies in the human world. Those include the ones that Grimmjow mentioned earlier. However, an idea strikes both halves of Zangetsu almost at the same time, but the hollow half of the strange sword is the one who speaks up. "Hey King, I got a bit of a weird idea here but it might work. Y'know how we, for lack of a better phrase, had sex with the queen about two weeks ago?" Ichigo has to hide the slight blush on his face under the collar of his cloak since Byakuya is running alongside him. "I'll take the rise in temperature here as a yes. Well, long story short since our souls are bonded both from her sharing her power with you and the hanky panky we enjoyed I should be able to go to her inner world."
"So you think she'd be able to sense you when you get there?" Ichigo asks, his words being thoughts but they echo as if spoken in his inner world. "I think we'd be better off getting Sode no Shirayuki's attention or that of her hollow to get Rukia's attention."
"Luckily the strangeness that has happened here since she was abducted by Ulquiorra has stopped. The sky is back to normal for the most part and I can feel that she has grown even more powerful. You haven't been here since you started training with tall dark and moody, so you haven't seen half the shit that has happened here." Zangetsu declares with a shout.
"What do you mean?!" Ichigo shouts out loud, startling the others near him but he ignores their questioning looks.
"I mean, that the fucking sky turned purple! It got super windy, her spiritual pressure got weird and now I sense that she's probably stronger than the old fuck you all call a head captain." Ichigo goes silent again, not even noticing that the exit of the garganta has opened and that the others have already stepped into Hueco Mundo. At a full sprint, Ichigo tears out of the garganta and plows directly into Chad, stopping dead in his tracks like he hit a brick wall.
"You alright Ichigo?" Chad asks as he turns and offers a hand for the orange haired man to grab so that he can be helped up. "You should watch where you're running."
"Jeez Chad, what are you made of? Lead?" Ichigo asks, rubbing the side of his head as it throbs in pain from the collision. "Woah… is this Hueco Mundo?" He asks, his attention focused on the shifting sands of the pale white hollow desert. The starless sky, hanging crescent moon far above in the sky, and strange quartz like cacti that seem to grow in the sands. "This place sucks."
"Yeah it sucks." Grimmjow says. "Aizen's palace ain't much better. Sand outside and sand inside in the courtyard. That over there is Las Noches, the palace of Hueco Mundo. Probably as big as one of the countries in the human world. From here, without the ability to use a sonido itd take weeks to walk there." Grimmjow says, pointing to the massive domed building miles in the distance. "He also has a guard dog, a special hollow made of sand. I think his name is Runuganga. He'll be a pain in the ass."
"Back track for a second, what's a sonido?" Orihime asks.
"It's a technique that hollows use similar to the flash step but its able to bypass the reiatsu sensing abilities of other hollows and soul reapers." Byakuya explains. "We should be able to do the same without hollow masks, but the humans will need to be carried."
"Then let's get going." Ichigo says, getting to his feet. The cloaks that Kisuke provided to shield their spiritual pressure are practically useless to protect the wearers from the cold.
"Has Hueco Mundo always been this cold?" Uryu asks incredulously as he shivers next to Orihime and Chad. "I knew deserts can get cold at night, but this feels like the arctic!"
"The ground is frozen moron, and if you took a second to sense the spirit energy from the ice you'd know it's Rukia's." Ichigo chastises, luckily for him his spiritual pressure is acting like a jacket since it's confined underneath Kisuke's special cloak.
"No, the desert of Hueco Mundo was almost always warm like the ones in the real world. Nowhere near as hot as the Mojave or Sahara deserts but it was comfortable for myself and the other hollows. I don't mind the cold all that much, besides the sooner we get into Las Noches the faster we get out of the cold if you all are so pussyfoot about the bad weather." Grimmjow responds.
"I doubt that, since Rukia is the cause of the freezing temperatures, Las Noches will be like walking through the arctic circle." Byakuya says, though his outward expression reads his usual stoic demeanor it's extremely obvious that he is freezing. "I don't know what Aizen did to Rukia to cause her to do this, but whatever it was this is probably her way of defying him."
"The creepy fuck had some sort of obsession with her since she was the only person in his entire life to ever manage to hurt him. He wanted us to either figure out how strong she was when we invaded Soul Society a few weeks ago, or capture her." Grimmjow says as they climb up a sand dune to get a better bearing on the hollow desert. "He's probably made her into my replacement, hell maybe even that fat fuck Yammy's. You feel the spirit energy coming off the ice? It's practically screaming that it was made by an arrancar, most likely an espada."
"I can tell it's still Rukia, even if she's an arrancar now she's still the same Rukia." Ichigo declares as he scans the desert sands for any other land markers. "Do you see that? The feint yellow glow there?"
"Looks like a fire." Orihime says following Ichigo's finger to where he's pointing.
"Hollows wouldn't start a fire to keep warm, maybe a soul that ended up here." Uryu says, "I think we should check it out."
"Might as well, but we're gonna have to move quickly. The longer we stay here the more likely it becomes that Aizen or one of his arrancar discovers our location." Byakuya warns them to begin their journey through Hueco Mundo.
The snow covered sands crunch beneath their feet making stealth more difficult than it already is being this far in enemy territory. The added issue of Kisuke's reiatsu concealing cloaks being difficult to control while flash stepping is also a difficulty. However, much like the snow that blankets the hollow desert, so does the refined hollowfied reiatsu of Rukia. Deciding to test the water slightly with someone that Aizen wouldn't recognize if he felt his spiritual pressure, Uryu uses a quick burst of speed to dash from the top of a sand dune to another. Luckily for them, his reiatsu is concealed completely both by the cloak and by Rukia's that permeates the desert. With this knowledge in mind, the group elects to flash step to each individual dune peak rather than over far distances, as the latter would require more energy to do and would risk their discovery. "I don't think you can flash step can you?" Renji asks both Chad and Orihime. "I know the quincy has a similar technique but what about you two?" The red head sighs deeply as they both answer "No." "Fine, Chad, rest a hand on my shoulder and Orihime do the same with Uryu we're gonna have to do it this way." Ichigo is the first to move, flash stepping to the next dune then stopping and waiting for the others to catch up. Byakuya gives him a signal that they didn't feel his spiritual pressure during the flash step then follows suit.
Bounding from dune to dune, the group has to take brief rests to recover from the frigid temperatures made much worse by moving so quickly. Luckily for them, whoever has the fire off in the distance isn't moving. Bounding to each dune brings them closer to the small campsite but Las Noches looks just as far in the distance as it did when they arrived. Ichigo flash steps onto the last dune before spotting the small fire. Around it looks like a child sitting cross legged on the ground with two hollows and a large worm hollow on it's side in the sand. Ichigo raises a hand for them to stop and listen in on what they're talking about. "Are you warm Nel?" One of the hollows asks, his skin a strange yellow color with purple polka dots covering his body. "N-no." the child answers, her voice haggard and shivering. "I-it's t-too cold." She complains. "I'll go see if I can find anything else to burn, if not then just throw some of my spirit energy in it to try to keep warm." The other speaks, this hollow having purple skin, in a more slender humanoid body with a loin cloth over it's lower half and over an eye.
"There's a child out here in the cold." Ichigo says as the others catch up to the top of the sand dune. "There's a couple other hollows but they're just huddled around the fire."
"If there's a little kid then let's try to help them," Orihime suggests.
"It could be a trap by Aizen, but I doubt he'd stoop so low to bait us with a little kid." Renji says.
"What do you think we should do, Kurosaki?" Byakuya asks, turning to his side to look at the black cloaked shinigami but to his surprise Ichigo had already moved away. "Kurosaki?!" Byakuya whisper yells as Ichigo approaches the group.
"Yo." Ichigo says with a slight wave of his hand. His voice startles the group huddled around the fire prompting the two older hollows to jump up in a protective stance over the young girl. "Don't be scared, I'm not gonna hurt you." He raises his hands so that they can see that he isn't holding his weapon.
"Who are you?" The eye patch wearing hollow asks, holding his hand over the green rag wearing child behind him. "Are you with Aizen?!"
"No, I'm not with him I'm here to kill him since he kidnapped my wife." Ichigo answers honestly, continuing to walk slowly towards the group. With the news that he's here to kill Aizen, the hollow's postures lessen slightly but are still on edge.
"Are you a soul reaper?" The one with the large mask and yellow body asks, the question laced with fear. Ichigo raises a hand under the hood of his cloak summoning his mask over his face but being careful to not let his spiritual pressure leak from the cloak.
"Technically I'm both Soul Reaper and Hollow." Ichigo answers, showing them the hollow mask over his face. "Why are you three out here all alone? And is the little girl here alright? She looks sick."
"Why should you care Soul Reaper? You're probably just here to kill us!" The skinnier hollow says.
"No, I'm only here to kill Aizen and rescue my wife. I don't want to kill or hurt anyone else, now I think we should introduce ourselves. I'm Ichigo." Ichigo introduces, pulling the mask from over his face, allowing it to disappear.
"I-I'm… n-n-nel." The girl answers, shivering heavily from the cold.
"Dondachaka." The large one in the mask says.
"Pesche. And the big worm is Bawabawa our pet." The skinnier one answers.
"Can you help us get into Las Noches, I promise we'll get you all out of this cold and somewhere warm if you help." Ichigo asks, extending a hand for Pesche or Dondachaka to shake it.
"I don't think we'll survive out here much longer if at this rate. The temperature has been dropping for several days now and it keeps getting colder and colder. Even the menos forest is freezing over, and it's becoming more dangerous to try to get wood from there to burn." Pesche answers. "We'll help but we need you to help Nel first. Her little body can't handle the cold and we've done all we can to try to keep her warm."
"Oh the poor thing," Orihime says as she rushes up to the group. "I'm with him, don't be shy." She says as to not alarm the others.
"Let's just have everyone come out so we don't have to repeat this over and over again. It's alright guys, you all can come here." Ichigo calls out, and a moment later Chad, Renji, Byakuya and Grimmjow appear behind him.
"Can I hold her?" Orihime asks, noticing the huddled form of Nel on the ground, the two larger hollows nod before moving aside. "Come here little one, it's alright let's get you out of the cold." Orihime says as she wraps her arms around the small child. As she does so the hood over her head comes off revealing a broken rams skull mask sitting on the top of her head.
"Holy shit." Grimmjow says, immediately recognizing the mask the child is wearing. "Is that, Nelliel?"
"Yes, her name is Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck." Dondachaka says, "How'dya know her name Don'cha'kno?"
"She was the former Espada Tres, and I think you two know who I am but I'm Grimmjow. Espada Seis, or former Espada Seis." Grimmjow says. "Oi, big tittied healer chick." "Orihime" "Yeah whatever," Grimmjow shouts, turning his attention to Orihime who is wrapping Nelliel in the extra cloak they were given for Rukia. "I don't know why she's tiny, but I do know that the fifth espada Nnoitra fucked up her head, so use whatever healing shit you got to try to fix it. It happened a few decades ago so it'll probably take a while to do."
"She doesn't remember her life as an Espada, but we were her fracciones but Nnoitra attacked us and it caused us to revert back to our hollow selves. He almost killed Nel in the process." Pesche explains. "But we can take you to Las Noches on the back of BawaBawa. The guardian of Las Noches has been frozen because of the ice, so we shouldn't have any issues getting inside."
"Soten Kisshun." Orihime says, summoning her healing powers causing the two sprites to envelop Nelliel's body in a warm golden light. She wills the two spirits to entirely cover Nel's body before taking the straps of the cloak that she's blanketed in and tying it to herself so that she can cradle Nelliel and continue to heal her.
"It's… warm." Nelliel says softly as Orihime hugs the little girl into her chest to help warm her up with her body heat.
"Alright, let's get moving. Hopefully that didn't alert Aizen that we're here." Uryu says, returning from a brief scout around the surrounding sand dunes.
"Bawabawa, wake up, time to go buddy." Dondachaka says patting the giant worm's stomach causing it to groan then roll over.
Uryu leans over the side of the giant worm hollow and extends a hand so that he can help Orihime and Nel up onto the creature's back. Pesche and Dondachaka are seated at the back of the hollow's head in what would be a driver's seat if giant dune worms could be driven. Ichigo sits facing the others as Orihime manages to get onto the large hollow. Renji plops himself down beside Chad as Byakuya and Grimmjow stand idle waiting for them to begin their journey. The body of the massive hollow scrunches slightly as it begins to slither across the frozen sands of Hueco Mundo. Dondachaka and Pesche do their best to follow their spirit energy into the large hollow to try to keep it warm as it speeds across the sands towards the massive palace fortress.